Following the old Lincoln Highway

We left in the morning rolling right along. The Caddy seemed to be moving along well until the very first hill. It was steep. There was always some question about my ability to down shift without stalling. It appears that I can do it pretty quickly when the need arises. Thank goodness. Once we got on the long straight roads the car ran well. (It's all the darn stop signs that really make it difficult). We could have held 38mph but there were a lot of rolling hills. The country side is beautiful, the sun was burning off the haze and the day looked like it might get hot. It did. We ran with the windshield down which keeps us cool but was tough on the face. Lots of windburn.

I missed a turn in Fulton IL and ended up on the wrong road, we thought we could just skip over on that road and get back on track but we weren't sure. I hailed a guy in a pickup and he offered to turn around and drive us over to the right road, so in return I sent Dylan to ask if his son would like a ride. It turned out his little guy, Jason, has Down's Syndrome. He doesn't talk but he can sign and he makes it pretty clear what is on his mind. I told him to hold on and he grabbed my arm and told me to go. He steered a bit, had me honk the horn, and told me to follow his dad. He was so happy, I was so happy, we jabbered like little kids all the way down the road. He was asking me all sorts of questions. He was a lovely little guy. It was a very happy moment for both of us. I only wish I could have given his dad a ride too.

Sadly we had to say goodbye to Art and Sue. They needed to go back home. I miss them both already (Although Art was probably really happy to be able to drive at a pace slightly faster than 35 mph. He is a real trooper that guy.) Thanks for the good roads, the good times and the good laughs.

We drove over the Mississippi into Clinton Iowa. I got a call from my mother giving me the message that an AACA tour would be stopping there tonight. We were sorry to miss them. That would have been a fun visit. But we were a little behind and wanted to get some miles under us before the rain hit. We stopped in Calamus looking for lunch and then headed on to Wheatland. Dorothy and Dan decided to stop for lunch, we went looking for a spot in the shade to work on the car. One of my coil boxes was acting up and Malcolm wanted to work on it. We drove on to Lowden where we were "found" by some folks who'd heard we were coming. Apparently there was a phone call that we had been spotted in town. There was a little confusion for a moment. They thought we were the Anderson group. But they were very sweet, spent a lot of time chatting with us and didn't seem too disappointed. We got to see a very nice 1904 orient in the Kemmann Chevrolet Dealership. What a sweet little automobile. You meet the nicest people when you move slowly.

We headed on to Cedar Rapids. I almost made it today but lost the battery box about 10 miles out of town. It's a gonner. Malcolm put the car in the trailer and we went to the hotel. A makeshift service department between the trailers for shade worked pretty well and while Malcolm started working on the magneto and Dorothy made some calls. For about an hour there was a pretty significant conference call regarding Splitdorf Magnetos. Thanks for all the help and advice guys. We'll let you know soon if it works.